Democracy Spring Protests Bring Record Number of Arrests

Thousands of people are participating this week in Democracy Spring, a march and sit-in to protest money in politics. So far they have had so many arrests outside Capitol Hill that the police are “running out of room.”

Police just told us that they are running out of space. Most people ever arrested at the Capitol! #DemocracySpring

— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) April 11, 2016

Crowd goes wild as @kai_newkirk announced they already broke record for most arrests at Capitol #DemocracySpring pic.twitter.com/XhNU5VHgWx

— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) April 11, 2016

According to the Democracy Spring website, the protest started with a 140-mile march from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. to “demand Congress take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections in which every American has an equal voice. Sit-ins are scheduled throughout this entire week. Thousands of people have pledged to march. http://www.democracyspring.org/

Approximately 300-500 protesters have already been arrested and today is only the first scheduled day of sit-ins.

Between 300-500 protesters got arrested at US Capitol, @calebmaupin tells me #DemocracySpring pic.twitter.com/t8w6yYEyBN

— Nebojsa Malic (@NebojsaMalic) April 11, 2016

Arrests being lined up in front of a police bus. #DemocracySpring pic.twitter.com/frq957Ct7h

— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) April 11, 2016

Protestors continue to remain positive and overall the protests have been very peaceful.

“They can’t arrest the whole country” #DemocracySpring pic.twitter.com/gMP8lCUqfM

— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) April 11, 2016

Just about to head to #DemocracySpring in DC. Time to take dark money out of our elections! pic.twitter.com/ttGNzmKkTA

— Susan McDaniel (@daisiesnow) April 11, 2016

Several well-known people have endorsed or shown up to the event, including Cenk Uygur, hose of The Young Turks, and actor Mark Ruffalo.

Please continue to follow NationofChange for additional updates through the week.